Recorded in Paris and released in 1969, Blasé finds jazz saxophonist Archie Shepp collaborating with an impressive group—including jazz singer Jeanne Lee—for a turbulent, mournful but tender exploration of black American roots music. “My Angel” is an eerie blues lament, with colliding harmonicas and fractured boogie-woogie piano. A serene performance of Duke Ellington’s “Sophisticated Lady” comes under threat from Shepp’s volatile sax phrasings, but a solemn calm settles in “There Is a Balm In Gilead”, an African-American spiritual guided by Lee’s sublime vocals.